Vale Col James

We're very sad to hear that the legendary housing activist and architect Col James has died.

When matters of housing justice and injustice broke onto the public agenda in the 1970s, Col was in the thick of it, as an early member of the Tenants' Union of NSW and Shelter NSW, an adviser to the Builders Labourers' Federation on its green bans, a founder of housing co-operatives and a friend to squatters. He was closely associated with the Block and the Aboriginal Housing Company for all of that organisation's life.

Col was a great teacher, both at the Faculty of Architecture at Sydney University and out in the community organisations with which he worked. A happy fighter, Col's motto was 'make housing a verb.'

Vale Col James.